Claire digs in to save treasures
26 Apr 1990SIMPLE wooden planks uncovered in the heart of Dublin this week hold the key to a map of how the capital city looked several centuries ago!
The stout timber barriers used by 13th century Dubliners will help archaeologists to draw a map of the medieval city which was not mapped until four centuries later.
The planks, known as “revetments”, were sunk along the edges of the Poddle River in Patrick Street to contain the flow of the river and stop it from flooding the nearby Si. Patrick’s Cathedral. They were also used to help bring water into the city.
Revetments have been found in other places but these particular ones show that the medieval city of Dublin extended fur further than originally thought.
OAK BEAMS
Claire Walsh, the archaeologist in charge of the site, explained that the containment of the Poddle is one of the largest engineering works of medieval times, with the channel made from huge oak beams packed in with tons of soil to reclaim the surrounding marshy land.
The discovery at Patrick Street was made by a strong archaeological team led by Claire, who have been employed by Dublin Corporation to investigate the site before the completion of a new £1,5 million sewer and drainage scheme.
The Patrick Street excavation is the first on the southside of the city outside the old city or Dublin walls. The archaeologists hope that tree-dating of the old timber will enable them to pinpoint an date when the work was carried out. Dublin Corporation senior executive engineer, -Mr. Jack Keyes. said that the Corporation was spending £500,000 on the archaeological dig. A time limit of five months had been set on the the actual dig with a further nine months to catalogue and analyse the findings.
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